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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
*** How Should You Package Knives for Shipping?
- Thread starter Cougar Allen
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2001
- Messages
- 12,336
Re-using precut large/medium boxes: USPS, UPS, Fedex*
Here's how I do it.....
I ship so many packages, so often, that when I can I like to conserve materials and not simply use up even more cardboard by discarding and using a new box. Free or not, I conserve when I can. (Only boxes in good arrival condition).
We've all cut into the edges of boxes after opening, and attempts to reseal them at that joint are generally a disappointment and leave them more vulnerable.
I've learned a 'trick' which allows the safest reuse of these boxes and is almost camouflaged from original. (Especially if you use tan tape.)
It's your choice, but here's what works for me.
Coop
Here's how I do it.....
I ship so many packages, so often, that when I can I like to conserve materials and not simply use up even more cardboard by discarding and using a new box. Free or not, I conserve when I can. (Only boxes in good arrival condition).
We've all cut into the edges of boxes after opening, and attempts to reseal them at that joint are generally a disappointment and leave them more vulnerable.
I've learned a 'trick' which allows the safest reuse of these boxes and is almost camouflaged from original. (Especially if you use tan tape.)
It's your choice, but here's what works for me.
Coop
I don't know if it's been said yet,but it's NEVER okay to ship a knife(fixed or folding) in an envelope.
I recently decided to give a new dealer a chance & ordered a knife from them.It was a folding knife from Spyderco.(It wasn't cheap either $150)
The dealer shipped it uninsured 1st class USPS in a padded envelope.The knife arrived fine.The box it came in was obliterated.
They wanted me to write about them on the forums too.I think they're better off I didn't.
I recently decided to give a new dealer a chance & ordered a knife from them.It was a folding knife from Spyderco.(It wasn't cheap either $150)
The dealer shipped it uninsured 1st class USPS in a padded envelope.The knife arrived fine.The box it came in was obliterated.
They wanted me to write about them on the forums too.I think they're better off I didn't.
I thought I'd chime in here as I realized this week that I've shipped something like 100 knives now, almost everyone of them Khukuris, that have run from 14 to 30 inches in overall length, running from 15 to 75 ounces.
I don't have much to add to the great comments in the thread, but insofar as packing this style of knife, death to someone shipping a khukuri is putting the knife in a position to have the pommel impacted. If it is, the top dead center postion of the handle that lies under your palm at the pommel swell will almost certainly break off.
The other weak point on the khukuri is the chape, the sharp brass point at the end of the leather-bound wood scabbard, which can be bent or poke through the packaging.
So, starting with a priority mail triangular box, I shove a ball of heavy wrapping paper down into the bottom of the box. Wrap the handle with bubble wrap and tape, folding all of the excess over the pommel and taping that down. Then I do the same thing to the chape, or fold a square of cardboard down over it, securing that sharp tip. If you don't it can end up clean through the box.
Then I wrap bubble wrap or styrofoam wrap over the entire scabbard and secure it and the bubble wrapped handle together with more tape, then the whole thing goes in the box pushed down on the ball of wrapping paper. You don't want the knife to come out of the scabbard if you tug on the handle, so it should be all one wrapped unit. Then fill the top interior section of the box with paper, bubble wrap, or whatever you have, then secure the top flap of the box, taping both ends down.
I bought several excellent knives from Tora years ago, shipped via the Royal Mail, and basically the knives were laid loose inside a cardboard frame that allowed 4" of movement on each end of the knife. By the time I got two of them sections of the buffalo horn were powder, so movement is the enemy.
In some cases because of the thickness of the scabbard at the point where the karda and chakmak rest, or if you are shipping two or more knives in the same box, you have to ship the knife out of the scabbard. In that case I do the same thing, but make a "V" out of a long strip of cardboard and tape it all along the edge and blade tip, then bubble wrap or styrofoam wrap the whole blade and tie that in to the wrapped handle.
The bottom line is that no matter how you do it, the idea is to eliminate any back and forth movement of the knife. No movement means zero possiblity either end of the heavy khukuri will be impacted, which can bend the chape, bend the pommel which will damage the handle, or even split the wood scabbard if hit hard enough.
One final note: IF you ship two knives together in a long box, you essentially have weight at each end and an unsupported area in the middle of the box. In some cases the priority mail box can start to bend in the middle, and tear apart. To prevent that put a double layer of heavy strapping tape in the center of the box to reinforce it. You can often get more weight into these boxes than they can comfortably support, so this helps in that situation.
Norm
I don't have much to add to the great comments in the thread, but insofar as packing this style of knife, death to someone shipping a khukuri is putting the knife in a position to have the pommel impacted. If it is, the top dead center postion of the handle that lies under your palm at the pommel swell will almost certainly break off.
The other weak point on the khukuri is the chape, the sharp brass point at the end of the leather-bound wood scabbard, which can be bent or poke through the packaging.
So, starting with a priority mail triangular box, I shove a ball of heavy wrapping paper down into the bottom of the box. Wrap the handle with bubble wrap and tape, folding all of the excess over the pommel and taping that down. Then I do the same thing to the chape, or fold a square of cardboard down over it, securing that sharp tip. If you don't it can end up clean through the box.
Then I wrap bubble wrap or styrofoam wrap over the entire scabbard and secure it and the bubble wrapped handle together with more tape, then the whole thing goes in the box pushed down on the ball of wrapping paper. You don't want the knife to come out of the scabbard if you tug on the handle, so it should be all one wrapped unit. Then fill the top interior section of the box with paper, bubble wrap, or whatever you have, then secure the top flap of the box, taping both ends down.
I bought several excellent knives from Tora years ago, shipped via the Royal Mail, and basically the knives were laid loose inside a cardboard frame that allowed 4" of movement on each end of the knife. By the time I got two of them sections of the buffalo horn were powder, so movement is the enemy.
In some cases because of the thickness of the scabbard at the point where the karda and chakmak rest, or if you are shipping two or more knives in the same box, you have to ship the knife out of the scabbard. In that case I do the same thing, but make a "V" out of a long strip of cardboard and tape it all along the edge and blade tip, then bubble wrap or styrofoam wrap the whole blade and tie that in to the wrapped handle.
The bottom line is that no matter how you do it, the idea is to eliminate any back and forth movement of the knife. No movement means zero possiblity either end of the heavy khukuri will be impacted, which can bend the chape, bend the pommel which will damage the handle, or even split the wood scabbard if hit hard enough.
One final note: IF you ship two knives together in a long box, you essentially have weight at each end and an unsupported area in the middle of the box. In some cases the priority mail box can start to bend in the middle, and tear apart. To prevent that put a double layer of heavy strapping tape in the center of the box to reinforce it. You can often get more weight into these boxes than they can comfortably support, so this helps in that situation.
Norm
SUGGESTION: STICK THIS THREAD IN ALL THE FOR SALE/TRADE SUBFORUMS
Just wanted to share a recent experience I had. Sold a ~$200 folder on the Exchange and received the photo below from the buyer. Up to this point I've had a 100% success rate shipping via USPS by reusing packaging and rarely adding insurance (eBay, forums, online returns, etc.). This particular package was sent via First Class with tracking, but without insurance. After assuming the worst I began searching the web for "usps delivered without contents". The results were not reassuring - not much chance for compensation.
Luckily for me the knife had actually been delivered intact although the clip had been scratched and the box obliterated. The buyer pointed me to this thread which I hadn't seen before in my usual BF travels (~4 subforums). Needless to say I will be conducting my transactions differently in the future. It's probably already been mentioned above, but here are my take-aways:
1. CYA by over-packaging, tracking, and insuring.
2. If you don't use #1 then communicate clearly with the buyer/seller about whose responsibility it is if the item is damaged or lost.
Just wanted to share a recent experience I had. Sold a ~$200 folder on the Exchange and received the photo below from the buyer. Up to this point I've had a 100% success rate shipping via USPS by reusing packaging and rarely adding insurance (eBay, forums, online returns, etc.). This particular package was sent via First Class with tracking, but without insurance. After assuming the worst I began searching the web for "usps delivered without contents". The results were not reassuring - not much chance for compensation.
Luckily for me the knife had actually been delivered intact although the clip had been scratched and the box obliterated. The buyer pointed me to this thread which I hadn't seen before in my usual BF travels (~4 subforums). Needless to say I will be conducting my transactions differently in the future. It's probably already been mentioned above, but here are my take-aways:
1. CYA by over-packaging, tracking, and insuring.
2. If you don't use #1 then communicate clearly with the buyer/seller about whose responsibility it is if the item is damaged or lost.